[Dixielandjazz] Red Rodney

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi All,

The mentions of Red Rodney and his narcotic problems reminds me of a musicians' tale which the wonderful English altoist, Peter King, told me. Red was working in a US city with a sizeable Chinatown and had got deeply into debt with his suppliers, who were connected at a very high level in the Chinese community. Red was summoned to meet Mr Big and, fearful of being fitted with a pair of concrete boots and sent to visit the local marine life, he put on his best clothes and was at his most polite during the meeting. After a tough cross-examination by Mr Big, he was relieved to hear "OK Red, you very silly boy, but I like you. You can pay off your debt by playing for nothing with the band in our Chinese night club for the next two months."

On the first night he truned up at the club on time and found that the band consisted of Chinese musicians playing traditional Chinese music on traditional instruments. He looked round the room and saw Mr Big and his heavies sitting at a front table. Mr Big motioned him to play, so he got his horn out and started to play tentatively with the band: an odd note here, a little phrase there, but he couldn't get his head round the scale system to begin to understand its construction, so he sweated a lot and had a very uncomfortable first set. During the set, and fearing the worst, he kept an eye on Mr Big and his ring-side team and didn't know what to make of the fact that Mr Big was quaking with contained laughter and frequently had to wipe away the tears. At the first break, he was summoned to Mr Big's table and told "Red, you crazy boy. Now you can go and don't ever get into debt again."

Robert Calder told us about Red's nefarious and felonious accounting escapades, which I hadn't heard before, but I did hear him playing with Pete King at an Edinburgh Jazz Festival of yesteryear, and very fine it was too, with the wonderful local pianst Alex Shaw showing just how good he could be too.

Ken Mathieson
www.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk